Foundation Coalition: Active/Cooperative Learning

Morgan -
Transcript: Planning Cooperative Learning Lessons "Getting Started"

I think it’s mostly different in the mental preparation, as opposed to the preparation of materials that I take to class. At the beginning it was very hard going into class realizing that I had no idea how the class was going to turn out. I didn’t know what their concerns would be. I didn’t know which areas they would struggle in. And I tried to prepare materials for all of the alternatives. I discovered very quickly that I wasn’t very good at predicting what they didn’t understand and which things they would struggle with. So, finally, I came to a point where I would say, it doesn’t matter if they . . . take the class in a direction [in] which I’m not comfortable that I can answer their questions; I’ll simply tell them, “I don’t know. We will revisit this later.” And I developed some activities, which I think the students see through, but [which] are at least a way for the class to proceed when we get to a point where I can’t use any of the materials I took with me to class.

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